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'wellness' posts

"How much water should I be drinking?" is one of the most common questions I get and the answer I give is "enough to keep you urine flowing and generally a light yellow color".

The old advice of 8-10 glasses of water a day is with the caveat if you aren't eating food - you have to consider the fluids in your food as part of your daily water intake - so 8-10 glassses a day is too much water for most of us.

Ezekiel J. Emanuel, M.D., an oncologist and vice provost at the University of Pennsylvania, recently wrote an op-ed piece for the New York Times called “Skip Your Annual Physical.” He stated his new year’s resolution was to skip his check-up with his primary care provider. He said it was one small way he could help reduce health care costs – because, from a health perspective, the exam was “basically worthless.”

That’s a pretty bold statement – one which might cause head scratching and confusion among the general population. After all, it goes against everything we’ve been told. And while his article makes some valid points, I don’t agree with his assessment that there’s no value in regular visits with your primary care provider unless you have a medical issue or complaint.

I’m fortunate enough to have lived most of my life with hardly a worry in the world when it came to personal health issues. However, this year changed my outlook. Firmly into the fourth decade of my life, it became necessary to schedule some basic preventative health care screens for the first time. This then led me down to what seemed like a never-ending path of scheduling and completing test after test, followed by even more appointments. As the year progressed, I also became involved in a serious health care issue affecting a very close family member which led to learning how to navigate the maze of international health care!

As 2014 finally rolls to an end, I reflect on some valuable lessons learned, having experienced medicine from the perspective of a consumer rather than a provider.

Most of us have heard the term, “the obesity epidemic,” and we are affected by it each day. Some of us have had personal weight struggles or have watched a loved one struggle, and all of us have been affected by the food industry’s constant flood of conflicting nutrition and diet information.

This has left us:

Frustrated and confused with our bodies

Unclear about how to feed ourselves

Constantly dieting or giving up on losing weight entirely

Overweight, obese, and sick

Eating for emotional reasons rather than eating to fuel our bodies

Misunderstanding obesity

If we want to be healthy, we must understand the basic science behind nutrition, obesity, and metabolism, and we must connect with our own personal needs. With the proper education, we can navigate through the media’s information, stop dieting, find our healthy weight, and change our lifestyle habits in a sustainable way.

Swedish Community Education and Swedish Weight Loss Services have partnered and are now offering Healthy Weight Classes; a three-class series that teaches you the tools you need to eat well and maintain a healthy weight. The classes provide ...

Blue Angels! Cheering fans! Hydroplanes! Live music! Fireworks! Along with the excitement Seafair brings to Seattle, it also brings a lot of noise! The otolaryngologists and audiologists at Swedish Otolaryngology want you to enjoy these events, while protecting your precious hearing. The sound of a jet engine can be up to 120 dB at take-off and even 30 seconds of exposure to this sound can cause permanent noise damage (American Academy of Audiology website).

We all have occasional gas, usually from something we have eaten, but many people feel that they pass too much gas or burp too frequently. Intestinal gas can result in abdominal pain, bloating and embarrassment.

The amount of gas produced by the body depends upon your diet and other factors. Most people with symptoms of excessive gas do not produce more gas than the average person, but are more aware of normal amounts of gas.

Many of us are aware of the recent nationwide recall of peaches and other fruit due to the potential of bacterial contamination. Although thankfully, no illnesses have been reported so far, I’d like to take this opportunity to refresh our knowledge about ways to avoid food borne illness or food poisoning.

According to The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), food poisoning affects approximately 1 in 6 Americans every year. Often it results in relatively mild symptoms such as nausea, diarrhea and vomiting that resolve within a day or so. However, food poisoning can also lead to more dangerous and even deadly outcomes, which is why food safety is so important!

So how should we protect our family from food borne illness? It’s pretty easy! Just remember 4 basic steps: clean, separate, cook and chill!